You are here

Pesticides made big news in 2010

The media paid serious attention to pesticides last year. Three of PAN’s leading issues — atrazine in the Midwest, methyl iodide in California, and endosulfan everywhere — were among the “Top 10 Environmental Health Stories for 2010.” Editors of Environmental Health News selected the top stories from 68,000 newspaper and magazine articles, radio and TV broadcasts and online media coverage.

The pesticide stories had dramatic company: the gulf oil spill, fracking (hydraulic fracturing) for oil, tainted eggs, attacks on climate scientists, and the FDA taking on bisphenol A. Bedbugs made the list too. Yet the level of ongoing debate around the health risks of pesticides surely reached a new high, thanks in part to broad public engagement in town meetings, letter campaigns and testimony before legislators.

Two of PAN’s issues also made the “Top 7 Sustainable Food Campaigns to Watch in 2011" as listed on Change.org: “Get a Bee-Killing Pesticide Off the Market” (our campaign against clothianidin launched in December), and, again, methyl iodide: “No More Poison on Strawberries”.

As Marla Cohn, editor in chief of Environmental Health News observed, "All of these issues will continue to be important in 2011 - and beyond."